A crowd gathers in front of the George Washington University Law School to re-enact the 1963 March on Washington. / H. Darr Beiser, USA TODAY

by Alistair Barr and Greg Toppo, USA TODAY

by Alistair Barr and Greg Toppo, USA TODAY

WASHINGTON - Fifty years to the day after the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. delivered his spellbinding "I Have a Dream" speech from the steps of the Lincoln Memorial, a large crowd braved rain on the National Mall and heard civil rights, labor and political leaders and entertainers urge them - sometimes defiantly - to keep fighting for justice and equal rights.

This time around, jobs and voting rights for African Americans shared the spotlight with fights for clean water and air, a living wage, civil rights for gays and lesbians, and an end to homelessness and stop-and-frisk policing policies. Former president Jimmy Carter even invoked the long-fought struggle for congressional voting rights by District of Columbia residents.

In an impassioned speech, President Obama said organizers of the original 1963 march realized that "change does not come from Washington but to Washington." He invoked the broader civil rights struggles of a half-century ago, telling the crowd, "Because they kept marching, America changed. ... Because they marched, America became more free and more fair."

King's daughter, the Rev. Bernice King, noted that at the 1963 march there was "not a single woman on the program." She said, "We have witnessed great strides toward freedom, (but) we must keep the sound and the message of freedom and justice going."

Earlier, Al Sharpton told the crowd that Jim Crow "had a son named James Crow Jr., Esq. He writes voting suppression laws," and National Urban League President Marc Morial said, "It is time, America, to wake up. Fifty years ago that sleeping giant was awakened, but somewhere along the way we've dozed. We've been quelled by the lullaby of false prosperity and the mirage of economic equality. We fell into a slumber. Somewhere along the way, white sheets were traded for button-down white shirts. Attack dogs and water hoses were traded for Tasers and widespread implementation of stop-and-frisk policies."

Through on-and-off rain showers that were occasionally heavy, marchers making their way to the National Mall waved banners that read, "The new Jim Crow must go" and "50 years later still fighting to vote," sang traditional protest songs and chanted, "Education is our right - education is our fight!" At times, a nearly unbroken sea of umbrellas stretched across the Mall.

The crowd appeared much smaller than the estimated 200,000 who jammed the mall in 1963 at a tumultuous time in U.S. history -- an era of separate bathrooms, lunch counters and drinking fountains for whites and blacks, of authorities using billy clubs, firehoses and police dogs to terrorize civil rights marchers in the South, and of murders of activists and little girls in church.

The 1963 march focused on what Andrew Young, a close associate of King's and later Atlanta mayor and U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, called "the triple evils of racism, war and poverty." Young said King's speech focused mostly on poverty. "He said that the Constitution was a promissory note to which all of us would fall heir, but that when men and women of color presented their check at the Bank of Justice, it came back marked 'insufficient funds.'

"Fifty years later," Young concluded, "we're still here trying to cash that bad check. Fifty years later, we're still dealing with all kinds of problems, and so we're not here to claim any victory - we're to simply say that the struggle continues."

Reginald Gilluno, 39, stood next to a portrait of King made of melted crayons and makeup so that people who are visually impaired could feel the power of the portrait. His mother, Oni Gilluno, 57, was 8 years old in 1963 and acknowledges that much has changed since then. But she believes there is still a lot of underlying racism. "A Caucasian person just doesn't get it."

Robin McNair, a teacher at Dupont Park Adventist School in the District of Columbia, said she and fellow teachers brought 50 students to the march. "We want them to experience history and be a part of it. Fifty years from now, they will be able to look back and remember this day and say they were there."

James Carter, 62, a retired educator from Hershey, Pa., said he left home at 3:30 a.m. Wednesday with a friend and his local pastor. "I wanted to be part of the march this time. I was too young - 12 - to go in '63," he said.

Carter said the dream of equal rights "has been realized for some, but there appears to be a concerted effort to diminish the dream. It's important to let them know that we won't stand for it. Dr. King wanted a complete America and we don't have that now."

He's concerned about a recent U.S. Supreme Court decision invalidating a key part of the 1965 Voting Rights Act. "The court took away clauses that allowed the (Justice Department) to address injustice," he said. "Look at North Carolina and Texas, which passed repressive laws (soon after) the Supreme Court decision. To say that everything is OK now is far from the truth."

The gathering, titled "Let Freedom Ring," was organized by the 50th Anniversary Coalition for Jobs, Justice and Freedom, a group represented by the NAACP, the National Urban League, Southern Christian Leadership Conference and other civil rights organizations.

Nearly five hours of speeches and performances marked the occasion, including appearances by everyone from Oprah Winfrey to Caroline Kennedy, just nominated by Obama to be ambassador to Japan.

Melanie Campbell, president of the National Coalition on Black Civic Participation, struck a more defiant tone, telling the National Mall crowd that racism is alive and well in the USA. She compared recent setbacks in voting rights to Ku Klux Klan efforts to intimidate blacks into not voting.

"There are no white sheets, but there are judges in black robes in the U.S. Supreme Court who struck down Section IV of the Voting Rights Act, opening the floodgates in many states to pass more voter I.D. laws to block people of color and young people from voting, with the goal of ensuring we never see another black man elected President - or woman - of the United States of America."

Ishiyah Yisrael, who traveled to the march from Raleigh, N.C., with his two college-age sons, wondered if 50 years from now African Americans of his sons' generation will commemorate Wednesday's march still facing the same issues that plague the black community today.

Yisrael, 48, born two years after the first march, stood in front of the White House and acknowledged the great achievement of having an African American leading the country. "Of course, we should celebrate our achievements, and that is an important one," he said. "But 50 years later, we are still talking about the same things: jobs, education, housing, health insurance. These are basic human rights that have not been met. Black men still have the highest unemployment rate, no matter who is the face in the office."